THE TRUTH IN ITS BEARING ON US
W. McKillop
1 John 3: 18–20; 2 John 1, 2, 4; 3 John 1–3; John 3: 20, 21
I would seek the Lord’s help, beloved brethren, to speak briefly about the truth and its bearing on us. I am not thinking of the truth abstractly, but the truth as involving persons. The greatest thought, of course, would be that Christ Himself is the truth, as He says, “I am ... the truth”, John 14: 6. Objectively the whole truth is set out in Christ in perfection. Subjectively the whole thought of the truth is maintained in the Spirit, for the Spirit is the truth. At the conclusion of these gatherings, it seems right to raise with us the matter of spiritual conclusion in our souls, our households, and our localities as to the truth. We have it before us in perfection and fulness objectively in Christ. In spite of all that has happened in the dispensation, we have it subjectively in perfection and fulness in the Spirit in the saints. The Spirit is not in the world, He is in the assembly, and the Spirit being the truth, He must be that as in the assembly. So He maintains, in His own blessed divine way in fulness subjectively, what has been presented to us objectively in fulness and perfection in Christ. If we carry away no other thought from this word, let us carry away that thought. It presents a rock testimonially on which we can stand firmly, that the Spirit is the truth.
These passages deal with the question of the truth relating to persons. There is a system of truth, of course, we know that; the doctrine of the truth that we love. But I am thinking about it in its effect in persons and its manifestation in persons. We have spoken about the need to be assured as to our position morally and the first scripture bears on this; it says, “hereby we shall know that we are of the truth”. I hope one effect of these three days together will be that every one of us,
brothers and sisters, young and old, will leave with the assurance of heart that we are of the truth. Other thoughts stand related to the truth in other connections. We are to hold the truth in love; men will be judged because they have not received the love of the truth. But I am thinking about the practical working out of the truth in each of us in our households, and in our localities. So it says, “hereby we shall know that we are of the truth, and shall persuade our hearts before him”. It is not a matter here of the conscience, the blood of Christ has settled the issue of conscience before God for us; but our hearts need to be assured, and we need to persuade ourselves that we are of the truth; it is something that you cannot do for me and I cannot do for you. It involves our immediate links with God. So he says, “shall persuade our hearts before him”, that is before God, not before the brethren. John is dealing with the secret side of our relations with God, and how we assure ourselves in a right sense, that we are morally of the truth.
He says, to encourage us, “that if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things”. I could do no better than to refer you to that wonderful word of Mr.
Taylor’s in Glasgow—‘The Supremacy of God’ (J.T. N.S Vol. 63, p.292) for the bearing of this verse. I would urge every one to read that address. How touchingly that great servant spoke about how God surrounds Himself with Himself, in order to assure us that whatever is troubling us in our hearts He is greater than that. Whether it is some exercise in my own soul or my household or my locality, or among the brethren in a general sense, God is greater than all that; and He is able to maintain us in this assurance that we are of the truth. It is no question of assumption ecclesiastically, but of persons being near to God, and God in grace and love coming near to them to assure them that they are of the truth. So God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. That would give us liberty to speak to Him about any matter; He knows it
anyway, but He is waiting for us to speak to Him about it. The blessed Man, about whom we have been speaking, who said that He came into the world to bear witness concerning the truth, knew perfectly well as He entered into that conflict in Gethsemane, that the Father knew what the cup was that was before Him. Nevertheless you see how He approached it in the dependence of faith in His lowly humanity and spoke to the Father about the cup; the Father knew what was in the cup; He spoke of “the cup which the Father has given me”, John 18: 11. The Father knew what was in it and had measured it. God knows all things and He has measured everything which confronts us and which may arise in our hearts. He would draw near to us in divine love to assure us, to stabilize us, and to strengthen us so that we do not lose the conviction and the knowledge that we are of the truth. John says here, “we shall know that we are of the truth”.
Having said that, I refer to what I read in the second epistle because it clearly bears on a household. John, this great apostle, says of himself, “The elder”; he is not calling attention to his authority as an apostle, but “The elder to the elect lady”. I would encourage the sisters to think of themselves from that standpoint. Whether this sister had a husband, I do not know, but at any rate she had children. John writes, “The elder to the elect lady”. How he distinguishes her! He adds, “and her children, whom I love in truth”. This was not merely some natural link, some family connection. John is not governed by that in what he says here.
I am not suggesting that we do not rightly regard natural relationships as of God, but I am suggesting that our households must be governed by love in the truth. That may be a very testing matter. Our natural affections may be very strong. You may be sure that Satan will put something in the way that will test us whether our households are going to be governed by natural family relationships or by love in the truth.
So he says of this elect lady, “whom I love in truth, and not I only but also all who have known the truth”. As you face a matter in your household, it tests you whether you are going to act on the basis of love in the truth, or whether you are going to be governed by a natural link. You can be sure that those who love the truth are going to be with you sympathetically and affectionately to support you in what may test you very severely. I suppose, in one sense, nothing is so testing as the natural claim that our loved ones would exert upon us. But he says, “and not I only but also all who have known the truth”. This woman evidently was loved by many who knew the truth, and 1 would say to any elect lady who is facing any test in her household that you are going to be loved by those who know the truth as you are governed by loving in truth. Then he says, “for the truth’s sake”. Mr. Raven made a very touching remark; he said that the Lord Jesus in becoming man resolved that He would die rather than surrender one iota of the truth of God. I think you see that feature of Christ in the apostles, especially in Paul. Paul said, “we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth”
(2 Corinthians 13: 8), and if it meant giving up his life he was ready to do it. Then “for the truth’s sake which abides in us”, is no doubt some allusion to the fact of the Spirit indwelling us here; the truth which abides in us, “and shall be with us to eternity”. That is the unchangeability of the position subjectively. Hebrews refers to God, “Wherein God, willing to shew more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose”, Hebrews 6: 17. The Spirit of God in us is showing subjectively the unchangeableness of the truth, for the truth’s sake which abides in us, and shall be with us to eternity.
John says, “I rejoiced greatly that I have found of thy children walking in truth”. It is a great matter to walk in the truth. The next passage refers to holding fast the truth, and the last one to practising the truth, but this is walking in the truth. He says, I have found of thy children walking in the truth, or “in truth”. What a
level he puts it on, “as we have received commandment from the Father”! Think of the Father coming into this matter of children walking in truth in our households as of the assembly. It shows what interest God has. You will remember how He spoke about Abraham, and his household, and his children. So he says, “as we have received commandment from the Father”.
Then the elder writes to the beloved Gaius; he says, “whom I love in truth”. Could we say that about one another, beloved brethren? As we look round at every person in this room, could we say that we love each one in truth? If we cannot, then there is not much value to our love. If it is love on social lines, or love because we are in the same age group, or love because we like to do the same things, that has no moral value. He says, “beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth”. You can read the footnote. Mr. Darby says, ‘there can be no truly loving but in the truth. It is the character of the love; it was love in truth’. Any other kind of love is not divine love. Then John says, “For I rejoiced exceedingly when the brethren came and bore testimony to thy holding fast the truth”. If you leave out the parenthesis, it would read “bore testimony to thy ... truth”, meaning that the man himself was the manifestation of truth. The point I want to make is that he was holding it fast! I trust that each one of us has spiritually resolved as a result of these three days together, we are going to hold fast the truth, if we do not hold fast the truth we shall soon lose it, and we shall just be a number of refugees in the ruin that Christendom has become. If we are going to be preserved in the truth, and as lovers of the truth we must hold it fast! So he says, “brethren came and bore testimony to thy holding fast the truth”. I would covet to have brethren come to my locality, who would be able to go to someone elsewhere and say, He is holding fast the truth. No doubt there are other things we can say rightly about one another but what a distinction this would be, to have brethren coming to the elder and saying, Gaius is holding fast the truth.
Then there is another man mentioned here, “Demetrius has witness borne to him by all, and by the truth itself”. It reminds me of a remark Mr. Gardiner made in an address in our locality, that if you put the truth up here, and you stood Gaius up against it, he would measure up to the truth. The truth would bear witness to him, that he was an exponent of it, livingly; not just an expounder of it, but an exponent of it, it is a great thing to have the saints bear witness to you as holding fast the truth. I certainly would covet that, and I trust each one would. Think of the truth itself bearing witness to us; that whatever feature of the truth is considered you can say about this person, he is an expression of it. No one, of course, could be an expression of it as Christ was, because He is the truth; but what a wonderful result of persons making way for the Spirit in His formative work, that they can be exponents of the truth, so that not only the brethren can bear witness to them but the truth itself. I think that would be a fine spiritual goal to set before ourselves. Paul had a certain goal before him which, of course, we ought to have too according to Philippians 3, but think of setting this before yourself, and saying by the grace of God I want to reach that point that the truth itself bears witness to me. It is not to make anything of ourselves exactly, it is rather to magnify the work of the Spirit of God, that the result in persons is such that there is no discrepancy between what they express and what the truth is.
I refer to the passage in John 3 in closing because the Lord’s point in what He has to say there is that there are persons who practise the truth. “For every one that does evil hates the light”, that really means that they hate God, because the light is really God come out in Christ. What an awful condition that is, persons who do evil and practise it hate the light because it exposes them. They do not come to the light, as it says, “that his works may not be shewn as they are”. The light shows the true character of everything, as Paul writes to
the Ephesians, “that which makes everything manifest is light”, Ephesians 5: 13. Light is the outshining of God in Christ. No doubt the full revelation of God in Christ is in mind in what the Lord is saying here as to the light. We come now to what is characteristic, “he that practises the truth comes to the light”, it cannot be otherwise. If I am practising the truth I am drawing near to God as He has come out in Christ, and what is seen is that my works are manifested that they have been wrought in God.
We referred in John 9 to the works of God being manifested in the man, but here are the works of one who practises the truth being manifested to have been wrought in God. That is a wonderfully appealing thought! Beloved brethren, that is what I would leave with you, that the practice of the truth brings out this wonderful result. In a person practising the truth, the light shows that his works “have been wrought in God”. They are in keeping with the blessed God who has come out in revelation in Christ. Well, that is all I have to say. My desire is that every one of us may practise the truth, and that it may be more and more manifest that our works have been wrought in God. May God bless the word.
Address at Denton
29 May 1995